Besides dealing with the prices of a used spin, blocks, halyards, spin pole etc, I have a fundamental problem understanding how to drill into my comp tip so I can mount a bale, (?bail?), or as Hobie France calls it, a 'balcony'.

I doubt that there will be any second chances to drill this correctly.

I see in the Tiger manual that there are two holes drilled on each side of the mast, and that a small length of Spectra D has been threaded through the holes on one side, round the front of the mast, and secured back through the holes on the other side of the mast. Can anyone suggest a template for drilling?

Mike M (aka he who jumps waves) tells me that the existing tang is too low. "The trick with the comptip is to hang a turn block from the new tang and use a rope bail that goes through the back of the tip. That way you are pulling down on the tang and not out. the bail uses the entire thickness of the tip, which gives it strength. You drill a hole right through the plastic track and comptip, and feed the bail rope through the holes."

He mounted his bail 18" above the existing SX tang, and then mounted a new tang 3" above that. So 38" from the top of the mast for the bail.

I will likely drive to Sextant Marine (50 minutes south of Montreal) this weekend, as they tell me they have a bunch of new and good used parts. In preparation for the trip...if anyone has suggestions...Tiger Boy, Jeremy, Hobie Rich, Brian J...Matt M or Matt B....whoever?

thanks to Mike the Wave Jumper, to Matt Davidge Tornado and I14 guru, and to Wayne S and Alan F, both Tiger sailors, for their help, emails and diagrams.

_________________1989 Hobie SX18 Sail # 1947'Only two things are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity. But I'm not sure about the former.'

Basically, there are two sets of holes you have to make:1) a set through the sail track as close to the Comptip as you can (but NOT the comptip itself so the comptip is still watertight). this set should be at the desired height of the halyard turning block, and a dyneema/vectran loop runs through it. these holes/the loop takes the horizontal forces from the top of the spinnaker.2) a set in the front of the comp tip, higher up the mast, to rivet the actual bale to. these should be installed like any other mast hardware, with rivet caps and silicone. then a piece of dyneema/vectran is run from the bale down do the halyard turning block, to take the vertical component of the halyard forces. Use your bale as a template for these.

My hooter was made for the SX tang, so i can't comment for sure on the exact locations for these holes (I don't think the exact height for set #2 above is critical). Before drilling, you could run the loop of dyneema around the entire mast and tape it in place, then hoist the spinnaker (on land, with no wind, without much halyard tension) to double check the height.

The point of all this is to have the rivets in shear, and avoid putting the rivets in the comptip in tension (which could cause them to rip out).

There used to be a diagram of all this somewhere on this site, but I can't find it at the moment.

If you have trouble finding a bale, i think I've got a spare (never used) that I'll part with for cheap.

For the upper "tang", I would suggest you drill the holes somewhere within the top 3" to 4" of the mast, this way your rivets pass through the comptip and into the aluminum head cap. This will provide a much stronger installation than riveting into the comptip only. If the rivets pass through the head cap, it will provide extra support and prevent the rivets from pulling out (this would be the same way that the mainsail halyard hook is installed).

John,In the support section of this website are spinnaker install instuctions and a diagram showing the position of the spin tang on the mast. I'm not sure if it for a standard or SX mast, but if you have a comptip, it should be the same length as one on a standard mast. This should give you some direction.